Don Randall says he can "sleep well at night" about his taxpayer-funded trip to Cairns, adding that while he visited his investment property "it wasn't as if I got the keys or anything".

I'm sure [MPs] are probably making it their business to examine the MCG [on grand final day] as part of their parliamentary business.

In the WA Liberal Party MP's first extended interview since Fairfax Media revealed he billed taxpayers more than $5000 to fly business class from Perth to Cairns with his wife, Mr Randall told The West Australian newspaper he was entitled to the trip despite having repaid the money.

Mr Randall said taking a "look" at his investment property was secondary to his real business in Cairns, which was to meet with the then opposition whip Warren Entsch "for a couple of hours". A week after the trip, Mr Randall updated his pecuniary interest register to show that he and his wife had taken possession of a property in Cairns, which they intended to rent out.

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The conversation with Mr Entsch, which Prime Minister Tony Abbott described in a radio interview earlier in the week as "very important", took in a range of issues including "local government amalgamations", according to Mr Randall.

In a separate interview Mr Randall suggested to a Perth suburban newspaper, the Armadale Examiner, that he had travelled to Cairns with his wife in his capacity as a shadow parliamentary secretary for local government.

Fairfax Media revealed last week that Mr Randall billed taxpayers $5259 for the trip in November last year on the grounds of ''electorate business''. But Mr Randall has refused on more than eight occasions to answer Fairfax's questions about the Cairns trip and about another trip to Melbourne in September 2012 – costing taxpayers $5300 – which he claimed on the grounds of "sittings of Parliament".

Asked repeatedly why he thought he was entitled to the trip given Parliament had not convened regularly in Melbourne since 1927, Mr Randall's spokeswoman has refused on every occasion to answer the question. Mr Randall had also refused over the past week to say whether he and his wife had attended the West Coast Eagles AFL semi-final that Saturday night at the MCG.

But Mr Randall has now told The West Australian that the Melbourne trip was "totally within entitlement", while admitting that he had in fact attended the AFL game on the Saturday night. He said MPs from WA were entitled to "break up" trips to Canberra by flying through a capital city of their choice.

"Just to illustrate that, you might want to check the front bar of the Hilton Hotel [in Melbourne] on grand final day to see how many members of all parties are there," Mr Randall said.

When the reporter asked him if he believed those MPs at the football bar were travelling under parliamentary entitlements, Mr Randall replied: "I'm sure they are probably making it their business to examine the MCG as part of their parliamentary business. That's tongue in cheek, of course".

Mr Randall blamed the media for the attention on his expenses. "It's not being driven by the Labor Party. And I've had calls from Labor Party people to say that."

"It's an issue that's been trawled over largely by the Fairfax Media and then become an issue for the rest of you."

Asked whether he had acted in the spirit of the law, Mr Randall said: "My interpretation of the spirit of the law will be completely different from somebody who is my opponent or my critic."

Mr Randall repeated his defence of spending more than $2500 on books that apparently had no relation to parliamentary business, including cookbooks and multiple copies of the Guinness Book of Records. They were gifts for school children in his electorate, he said.

Mr Randall also said his daughter Tess, who has been employed in his office, would be "going to work elsewhere shortly".

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said on Friday he believed it was up to Mr Abbott to explain how Mr Randall's expenses fell within the guidelines.

''Clearly each of the two people involved, Prime Minister Abbott and Don Randall, have got a different explanation,'' he told ABC Radio.

Mr Shorten acknowledged there was ''community anxiety'' about entitlements, even though the majority of MPs did the right thing.

The Labor leader said the opposition would work with the government to clear up the guidelines around expenses, but when asked, did not indicate Labor would approach the Coalition with a specific model.

''Obviously you've got to approach this on a bipartisan basis and we have made it clear that we are willing to sit down with the government to alleviate community concern, to make sure that there can be no doubt about the integrity of the system.''

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Friday defended the current expenses system, saying that it was not ''desirable'' for opposition MPs to provide detailed accounts of who they met with.

''Do you think that the government should be asking members of the current opposition to detail the meetings they're having with who and what about before a judgment is made on whether a particular meeting ... was in or outside the official business?'' he asked on ABC Radio.

He later added that it would not be practical for public servants to manage the compliance aspects of MPs providing more detail about their expenses.

Senator Cormann said that members of Parliament had a job to do and that it involved travel ''from time to time''.

''In opposition you have all sorts of meetings in relation to all sorts of matters in order to pursue your responsibilities,'' he said.

140 comments

And out come the excuses and deflection. Own up mate, say you got it wrong, and you might retain a modicum of respect.

Commenter

Dealy_Stan

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 10:18AM

Oh well.. this is what people wanted... what can I say?

Commenter

The Other Guy1

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 10:44AM

maybe Phony can loan him a bike to back pedal.

Commenter

Tin

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 10:44AM

The reason he and his like can sleep well at night is these career politicians are so far removed from the reality of life that most of us live in. They just see nothing wrong with their actions and when they issue those pathetic non-apologies "I'm sorry if anyone is offended...." it hits home just how privilged they are. Why are allowing politicians including the so called "opposition" to behave like this and pay for it all?

Look at Bob Carr's outragrous 18 month party at our expense with no intention of honouring the people he was supposedly working for. Something has to change with a view to cutting ALL perks and see how many of these career politicians dump their job. Most are not in it to serve the people at all.

Commenter

Peter

Location

Fremantle

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 11:08AM

Its taken a couple of weeks for the LNP clean-up unit to come up with a plausible response to a blatant unacceptable use of tax payers money. If this is a mistake(highly doubt it) then why is the LNP fielding such inept candidates. The swinging voters of Australia who put this government into power were conned by a smooth talking sports jock that only should be believed if it is in writing.

Smoke Mirrors and Excuses

Commenter

VonBB

Location

Clivesland

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 11:17AM

The sadder thing is you can see the lack of principles from the Liberal suppporters.

They just ignore this, and want it to go away. Can't even do the right thing and admit it's wrong, but just hide and ignore it , and hope it's forgotten instead.

Commenter

TheBigM

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 11:31AM

Took awhile to cook up that feeble attempt of an excuse.They seriously do think we are so dumb downed that we'll accept their audacious attempts at justifying themselves.Well I for one don't.

Commenter

A country gal

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 11:50AM

Tin, borrow?Nah, just claim one no need to borrow.

Commenter

A country gal

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 11:52AM

Now he's the victim! Poor Don.

Commenter

LuckyB

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 12:01PM

@Peter Bob Carr was the Foreign Minister you probably don't understand his role but Foreign Ministers travel to do their job jut like Rudd Downer and Co.